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One of our favorite albums ever on the legendary ESP label – and a key session in the best "new thing" mode of the 60s! The New York Art Quartet were a short live collaboration between trombonist Roswell Rudd, saxophonist John Tchicai, bassist Lewis Worrell, and percussionist Milford Graves – but their legacy in this one album is almost greater than that of other combos who recorded more frequently at the time. The sound is similar to the best "spacious" groups of the new thing years – such as the Archie Shepp/Bill Dixon work, or some of the looser sides by the New York Contemporary Five – a group that featured Shepp and Tchicai. Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) makes a key guest appearance on the title "Black Dada Nihilismus" – reciting his writings alongside the group's somber instrumental musings – and other titles include "Short", "Rosmosis", and "No 6".

An amazing debut from the John Carter/Bobby Bradford New Art Jazz Ensemble – one of the most powerful voices in jazz on the west coast at the end of the 60s! In a way, the quartet's sound is a culmination of the underground changes that had been bubbling under during most of the 60s on the LA scene – new ways of conceiving jazz after Ornette and Dolphy had first set the scene on fire at the start of the decade, but styles that weren't receiving nearly the exposure as some of the better-known avant work on the Chicago, New York, or European scenes. The style here definitely owes something of a legacy to Ornette in the way it reconceives rhythm and melody – and a bit to Dolphy in its freewheeling, free-thinking work on clarinet, flute, and alto by John Carter. Bobby Bradford's bracing trumpet lines really give the album a tremendous punch – and the rest of the group features Tom Williamson on bass and Bruz Freeman (brother of George and Von!) on drums. Titles include "Seeking", "The Village Dancers", "Sticks & Stones", "In The Vineyard", "Karen On Monday", and "Song For The Unsung".

An explosion of music from the legendary ESP Records label – a 50th Anniversary tribute to all the genius that made the imprint so wonderful back in the day – and easily one of the most important jazz labels in America! The set here focuses heavily on ESP's contribution to avant jazz – and the tracks feature the cream of the crop of the east coast scene at the time – particularly the groundbreaking New York players who were running forward with the experiments of the "new thing" generation, and starting to forge the first space for free jazz in the US! Titles include "Burn Baby Burn" by Norman Howard, "No 6" by New York Art Quartet, "The Lady" by Frank Wright, "Cocktail Piece" by Don Cherry, "Metamorphosis" by Sonny Simmons, "Other Worlds" by Sun Ra, and "Batterie" by Paul Bley.

Unbelievable – and a record that's one of our favorites by the fantastic Italian jazz pianist! Marco Di Marco is a richly talented player with a keen ear for lyrical beauty and a strong sense of the groove – and here, he's working in quartet formation, in New York, with a group that includes Jack Six on bass, Ronnie Bedford on drums, and Dave Tofani on tenor, soprano sax, and flute. Six's work on bass is really stunning – round, full, soulful, and funky – and Tofani's reed work is equally compelling, with an angular and soulful quality that pushes all the tracks quite strongly. The album's got a killer jazz dance groover called "Camparenda", with some great flute by Tofani, plus a nice bass-heavy groover called "Lazer's Theme" – but the whole album's great, and other tracks include "Theme For Ginerva", "Drops", and "You Caught Me".

An obscure little quartet session from Red Garland – recorded with Les Spann on both guitar and flute, caught at a time when he was just starting to make waves on the New York scene! The presence of Spann gives the record a decidedly different feel than most of Garland's work on Prestige – as the hollow-body guitar tones bring some much bluesier inflections to some of the tunes, offset by more chromatic runs that really illuminate others. Red's own piano is still wonderfully soulful, and presented here with a pointed sense of economy on some numbers – and rhythm is by Sam Jones on bass and Frank Gant on drums. Titles include "Marie's Delight", "This Can't Be Love", "Blues For News", "I Just Can't See For Looking", and "Solar".

Three different slices of work from Julius Hemphill all served up over the course of five albums for the Black Saint/Soul Note label! The first two records in the package – Raw Materials & Residuals and Flat-Out Jump Suite – both have Hemphill coming off the New York loft jazz years – working on the first record in open improvisatory format with cellist Abdul Wadud and percussionist Don Moye – and on the second set with Olu Dara on trumpet, Wadud on cello, and Warren Smith on percussion. Both records have a very loose, open feel that's mighty nice – and darn soulful at times! Next are two early 90s albums – Fat Man & The Hard Blues and Five Chord Stud – both done with a sextet of reed players, with no other instrumentation at all – in a style that's a lot like the World Sax Quartet, but even more complicated. Reedmen include James Carter and Andrew White on tenor, Marty Ehrlich and Carl Grubbs on soprano and alto sax, Tim Berne on alto, and Fred Ho on baritone. Chile New York is the last album, and quite possibly the most intimate – beautiful duets that feature Warren Smith on percussion, plus Julius Hemphill on alto, tenor, flute, and even a bit of voice! The music is wonderfully evocative – and although released in the late 90s, was actually recorded in 1980 – with a loose, loft jazz sort of feel throughout.

Steve Kuhn at his funky best! Over the years, you may have seen Steve's name turn up on collections of hip funky tunes from the early 70s – but probably have never been able to find the right record that offers that same sound. Well, search no further, because this is the record – and it's a real gem! The album was recorded live in New York – with an acoustic quartet that include George Mraz on bass, serving up some incredibly warm, round, and soulful lines that give nearly every track on the record a great groove. Titles include "Raindrops Raindrops", "Gloria", "The Child Is Gone", "The Real Guitarist", "Thoughts Of A Gentleman", and "Chicken Feathers".

One of the greatest 50s showcases for the tenor talents of Warne Marsh – a deceptively understated album that captures Warne at his most fluid and creative point! The setting is a quartet – with Ronnie Ball on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Stan Levey on drums – and Marsh is magnificent throughout, really blowing with a tone that is fresh and filled with modern ideas – yet never overdone, nor too willfully complex to lose the train of the tunes. The approach is almost Konitz-soulful – a wonderful distillation of ideas in the hands of one magical talent – and titles include "Ad Libido", "It's All Right With Me", "Playa Del Ray", "Autumn In New York", and "You Are Too Beautiful".

Truly one of the Modern Jazz Quartet's greatest albums – and a set that has an edge and a darkness that's missing from some of their other Atlantic records! Part of the reason for this may be the group's fantastic reading of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" – a killer moody track that sounds great in the group's vibes/piano style – and which leads off the album with a chilling tone that's really unbelievable! The rest of the album's pretty great too – and there's a brooding intensity we don't normally hear in the piano of John Lewis and vibes of Milt Jackson. Other tracks include Gary McFarland's "Why Are You Blue" – plus John Lewi's "Belkis", "Animal Dance", "New York 19", and "Trieste".

With Frank Wess on tenor and flute, Roland Hanna on piano, George Mraz on bass, and Ben Riley on drums.

The Total Improvisation unit of Siwula, Stowe, and Sage is augmented by the guitar of Dom Minasi – a player we know best from his mellow 70s album on Blue Note – but who steps out here as a bold improviser with talents to match the rest of the group! As on their previous session, the core trio have a style that's sometimes more tuneful than you'd expect from pure improvisation – a sensitivity that almost has little songs springing up between them, especially on some of the gentler moments. In addition to the guitar of Minasi, instrumentation includes piano from Nobu Stowe, alto and tenor from Blaise Siwula, and drums from Ray Sage. CD features 5 quartet numbers, plus 2 more trio titles.

Some of the richest sounds we've heard from trumpeter Tomasz Stanko in years – played by his New York Quartet on a double-length record that really shines with some wonderful colors! Some tunes have the moody, atmospheric quality of other Stanko records on ECM – but others are a bit more straighforward and swinging – and balance things out nicely, in ways that really make us appreciate all the extra room in the 2CD set. Group members include David Virelles on piano, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums – and titles include "Assassins", "Dernier Cri", "Mikrokosmos", "Song For H", "April Story", and "Faces".

A recent set, but one that captures the David S Ware Quartet in all their glory – almost a pure return to the compelling spiritualism the group first grabbed us with back at the start of the 90s! The performance is very open and expressive – all of Ware's most righteous ideas brought into keen focus, with key collaborative efforts from Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Guillermo E Brown on drums – all working together here in ways that almost make us feel like we've stumbled across some small pressing from a New York label in the early 80s! (And given the very limited run of this set – this album's bound to have a similar sense of rarity years from now.) Tracks are very long – and titles include "Ganesh Sound", "Theme Of Ages", "The Stargazers", "Lithuanian Whirl", and "Surrendered".

A tremendous debut from Ace Spectrum – a harmony quartet who never cracked the charts as much as some of their east coast contemporaries, but who were every bit as great as the bigger names on the east coast scene! The album's got a soaring sound that's strongly influenced by Philly, but recorded in New York – a warmly compressed style that's professional and focused, and beautifully put together with arrangements from Bert DeCoteaux and production by the team of Tony Silvester and Ed Zant. We love the group the best on the mellower cuts – which have a quality that's deeply personal amidst the smoothness – but even the more upbeat tracks are plenty darn great too! Titles include the sublime slow numbers "Moving On" and "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" – plus "Don't Send Nobody Else", "If You Were There", "Pickup", "I Don't Want To Play Around", and "Me & My Love".

Mindblowing punk and free jazz collision from Dissipated Face – with alto sax behemoth Daniel Carter blowing fiercely out front – a fast, brutal, yet defiantly musical quartet of songs recorded live in 1986 at the legendary Bowery club! This great 7-inch, 33 1/3 RPM EP has four killer tracks – with fast, bashed out guitars, furious rhythms and angry, aggro vocals – really cool underground stuff just on that level, but Carter's brilliant sax truly blows it into on amazing level. Titles include "Rock Is Dead, S**thead", "Nazi With A New Name", "Streets Of New York" and "My Life Is Like An Alligator".

Key work as a leader from Johnny Dyani – the legendary bassist from the pioneering South African combo The Blue Notes – recorded with a great quartet featuring Don Cherry, Makaya Ntshoko, and Dudu Pukwana! The album features a wonderful extended tune, running for all of side two, entitled "Jo'Burg–New York" – a musical journey that's worth the price of the album alone – and the set also features a number of great shorter tunes that include "Wish You Sunshine", "Song For Biko", and "Confession of Moods".

A beautiful record that not only shows how great the basswork of Ingebrigt Haker Flaten can be – but also what a great collaborator he is in an improvised setting! We've loved other albums from Flaten, but somehow this one really feels like a cut above – bass lines that have these incredibly powerful moments, with just the force of a few low notes – mixed with instrumentation from a well-chosen quartet lineup of Joe Morris on guitar, Joe McPhee on tenor, and Nate Wooley on trumpet! The horns seem to take off to the skies at some points, really let loose – but other times really seem to feel the sonic setting provided by Ingebrigt, as they slowly move to add in their own textures. Morris is nicely restrained at some moments – and titles include "Pent", "Times", "Port", "Giants", "Knicks", "Rangers", and "As If".

Reissue of a rare Teddy Charles album that also featured Booker Little and Booker Ervin. The album features the inventive vibist caught live in New York at a Metronome sponsored gig featuring Mingus alums Mal Waldron, Booker Ervin and Booker Little. The set includes one expansive Charles original, "Take Three Parts Jazz", a Little original "The Confined Few", Ervin's "Scoochie" and Waldron's "Cycles", along with a few standards. The music is fantastic, and is a mix of modernist modal themes with rich soul jazz playing. Ervin and Little are fantastic, and their sharp edgey sounds are a perfect contrast with Charles' moody vibes. Very little of Teddy Charles' work, which ranged from introspective avant garde pieces with Jimmy Giuffre to more swing based collaborations with Mingus, has been documented, this piece showcases his New Directions Quartet in a unique setting, with inspired guests.

Truly one of the Modern Jazz Quartet's greatest albums – and a set that has an edge and a darkness that's missing from some of their other Atlantic records! Part of the reason for this may be the group's fantastic reading of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" – a killer moody track that sounds great in the group's vibes/piano style – and which leads off the album with a chilling tone that's really unbelievable! The rest of the album's pretty great too – and there's a brooding intensity we don't normally hear in the piano of John Lewis and vibes of Milt Jackson. Other tracks include Gary McFarland's "Why Are You Blue" – plus John Lewi's "Belkis", "Animal Dance", "New York 19", and "Trieste".

An obscure female soul project from 70s-era TK Records – one that features production by Clarence Reid, hence the group's name! The groove here is very much in the best Miami club mode of the time – upbeat, but still nicely gritty overall – more fast funk in the instrumentation, with slight touches of strings – and vocals from the quartet that slide nicely into the rhythms, which themselves bear plenty of TK touches! The whole thing's got a feel that's a lot better than you might guess from the cover – kind of a rougher take on the Gwen McCrae vibe of the time, almost set loose to do things with a more relaxed approach overall. And the vocals are surprisingly strong at points too – with one singer coming to the forefront with a deeper soul mode than you might expect. Titles include "I'll Be Damned If It's Me", "What Am I Gonna Do", "Push Me Back In The Corner", "More Of A Woman", "That's How It Is When You Are In Love", "New York City", and "This Time Tomorrow".

One of the raunchiest albums ever cut by organist Freddie Roach – not as high-reaching as some of his later work, but with lots of short tracks that groove with a tight jukebox organ/tenor approach! The band is a strong one – with Conrad Lester on tenor, Eddie Wright on guitar (replaced by Kenny Burrell on a few cuts, and Clarence Johnson on drums – a power packed quartet groove that's lean, clean, and simple – giving the record a raw sound that's a bit more Prestige Hammond than the usual Blue Note set! Titles include "Baby Don't You Cry", "I Know", "Googa Mooga", "Mo Greens Please", "Nada Bossa", and "Party Time".

Sonny Stitt's work for Verve was some of his best on record – and this album is a perfect illustration of that bold claim! Sonny's blowing here in a wonderful style – a bit more restrained than on his early bop sides, more complicated than on his later soul jazz sessions, and all together totally solid, totally in-the-pocket – with not a note out of place, nor a moment of superfluous blowing on the set. Stitt's extremely confident here – dominating the intimate quartet setting with lots of fire, warmth, and imagination. The rhythm section includes Jimmy Jones on piano, Jo Jones on drums, and Ray Brown on bass – and tracks include "Sonny's Tune", "Down Home Blues", "Alone Together", and "Norman's Blues".

An obscure female soul project from 70s-era TK Records – one that features production by Clarence Reid, hence the group's name! The groove here is very much in the best Miami club mode of the time – upbeat, but still nicely gritty overall – more fast funk in the instrumentation, with slight touches of strings – and vocals from the quartet that slide nicely into the rhythms, which themselves bear plenty of TK touches! The whole thing's got a feel that's a lot better than you might guess from the cover – kind of a rougher take on the Gwen McCrae vibe of the time, almost set loose to do things with a more relaxed approach overall. And the vocals are surprisingly strong at points too – with one singer coming to the forefront with a deeper soul mode than you might expect. Titles include "I'll Be Damned If It's Me", "What Am I Gonna Do", "Push Me Back In The Corner", "More Of A Woman", "That's How It Is When You Are In Love", "New York City", and "This Time Tomorrow".

A beautiful record that not only shows how great the basswork of Ingebrigt Haker Flaten can be – but also what a great collaborator he is in an improvised setting! We've loved other albums from Flaten, but somehow this one really feels like a cut above – bass lines that have these incredibly powerful moments, with just the force of a few low notes – mixed with instrumentation from a well-chosen quartet lineup of Joe Morris on guitar, Joe McPhee on tenor, and Nate Wooley on trumpet! The horns seem to take off to the skies at some points, really let loose – but other times really seem to feel the sonic setting provided by Ingebrigt, as they slowly move to add in their own textures. Morris is nicely restrained at some moments – and titles include "Pent", "Times", "Port", "Giants", "Knicks", "Rangers", and "As If".

Not straight soundtrack work, but a wealth of groovy jazz and vocal cover versions – almost all of them from hip 60s movies, presented here in a really wonderful package! The tunes often have the sort of exotic tinges you might guess from the title and cover – an approach that's somewhat loungey, but never in a sleepy or gimmicky way – thanks to an excellent choice of artists for the set! Instrumentation includes vibes, flute, Hammond, and plenty of percussion – and the balance here has a lot more on the instrumental side than the vocal one – although the tracks with singers are still pretty great too. Titles include "Our Mann Flint" by Herbie Mann, "Moon River Cha Cha" by Barney Kessel, "Exodus" by Quartette Tres Bien, "Kookie's Mad Pad" by Ed Byrnes, "Daktari" by Shelly Manne, "Theme From Lawrence Of Arabia" by Les Baxter, "Never On Sunday" by Calvin Jackson, "Batman Theme" by The Marketts, "It's Not Unusual" by Marty Paich, "Latin Golightly" by Barney Kessel, "A Mann & A Woman" by Herbie Mann & Tamiko Jones, "Alfie" by Dionne Warwick, "Theme From MASH" by Jimmy Smith, "Sunday In New York" by Mel Torme, "Theme From Midnight Cowboy" by Young-Holt Unlimited, and "The Shadow Of Your Smile" by Esther Phillips.